The EU should be stronger and more united. Great Britain should belong to the Union.
Die EU sollte stärker und geeinter sein. Großbritannien sollte der Union angehören.
L'UE devrait être plus forte et plus unie. La Grande-Bretagne devrait appartenir à l'Union.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Lord Carey Calls for 'Reasonable Limit' on Migration
TIMES ONLINE: Lord Carey of Clifton has called for a "reasonable limit" to be imposed on the number of migrants entering Britain. The former Archbishop of Canterbury said he was not calling for a ban on non-Christian immigrants settling in Britain, but he warned that if concerns about immigration were not addressed it could play into the hands of the British National Party.
"What I think we must call for is an understanding on the part of those who come into our country that they are coming into one which values parliamentary democracy, which is built upon our Christian heritage. They have got to understand our commitment to the English language and espouse it, and they must understand our history," he said in an interview with the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.
Lord Carey said he was not arguing for an outright ban on new immigration but believed that there needed to be a "reasonable limit" on the numbers coming into the country. >>> Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent | Wednesday, January 06, 2010
France’s Elite Colleges Rise Up in Revolt against Nicolas Sarkozy
TIMES ONLINE: The elite colleges that train France’s rulers and top managers were in open revolt against President Sarkozy’s Government yesterday, refusing orders to admit more students from working-class and immigrant backgrounds.
Cabinet ministers expressed shock at the defiant stance adopted by the heads of the grandes écoles, the establishments that educate the cream of the professions. Mr Sarkozy wants them to take 30 per cent of their entrants from low-income families. The colleges retort that to do that would mean dropping their rigorous standards.
The quarrel goes to the heart of Mr Sarkozy’s drive to revamp a once-proud higher-education system that is failing all but a lucky few, leaving France behind in world rankings. Most students are relegated to overcrowded, free-for-all universities with a 25 per cent drop-out rate, while resources are lavished on the privileged 14 per cent who reach a few dozen highly selective colleges, most of them from the higher social classes.
In recent decades France’s old meritocratic path to the top has declined. It has become harder for students from less-educated — and especially immigrant — families to pass the gruelling competitive entrance examinations for the écoles, which include the Polytechnique, the Centrale and the HEC business school. >>> Charles Bremner in Paris | Tuesday, January 06, 2010
Britain Threatens to Freeze Iceland Out of EU as Loan Payback Vetoed
TIMES ONLINE: Britain warned Iceland that it would be frozen out of the European Union after its President abruptly vetoed the repayment of a £3.6 billion loan.
The Treasury expected Reykjavik to rubberstamp the terms of repayment for the loan extended by Britain and the Netherlands at the height of the financial crisis. The loan meant that 400,000 savers with deposits in Icesave did not lose their money.
President Ólafur Grimsson stunned the world’s financial community by refusing to sign the repayment schedule into law. Instead, he said that the matter would be decided in a referendum among Iceland’s 243,000 voters.
The decision threatened to bring down the Icelandic Government, took its financial system to the brink of collapse and sparked the worst row with Britain since the Cod Wars of the 1970s. Fitch, the international rating agency, downgraded Iceland’s credit rating to junk status.
Lord Myners, the financial services minister, said that if the decision was allowed to stand Iceland would be frozen out of the international financial system and would not be able to join the European Union. >>> Suzy Jagger and Jill Sherman | Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Prophet Muhammad Couldn’t Have Known about the Therapeutic Effects of Pork
MAIL ONLINE: The traditional English breakfast is not normally associated with good health.
But scientists have found that eating a plate of bacon and eggs could help pregnant women boost the intelligence of their unborn child.
Women are usually given a list of foods to avoid during pregnancy and it is well documented that a pregnant woman's diet can affect her unborn baby.
Grande-Bretagne : la paix troublée de Wootton Bassett
L'imam Anjem Choudary (ici en octobre 2006, à Londres), chef du groupuscule Islam4UK, entend protester contre «l'assassinat sans pitié» de milliers de civils musulmans afghans par les troupes britanniques et américaines. Crédits photo : Le Figaro
LE FIGARO: Des extrémistes musulmans menacent de défiler dans le village symbole des soldats tués en Afghanistan, à l'ouest de Londres.
Il est 13 h 55. Les cloches de l'église Saint Bartholomew sonnent le glas, un silence étrange tombe sur la rue principale de Wootton Bassett. Les commerçants ferment leurs boutiques et rejoignent les quelques centaines de personnes qui se sont rassemblées dans le froid glacial le long de la grand-rue du village. Comme à plus de 100 reprises depuis trois ans, les habitants de cette petite agglomération située dans la campagne du Wiltshire, à une centaine de kilomètres à l'ouest de Londres, viennent saluer le passage des corps de deux soldats britanniques morts en Afghanistan.
Mais cette fois-ci, la courte cérémonie se déroule dans un contexte très particulier : le groupuscule radical islamiste Islam4UK a prévu de venir manifester à Wootton Bassett avec de faux cercueils, pour protester contre «l'assassinat sans pitié» de milliers de civils musulmans afghans par les troupes britanniques et leurs alliés américains. Cette annonce faite par l'imam Anjem Choudary, ancien responsable du groupe musulman extrémiste al-Mujahiroon, dissous par les autorités britanniques, a provoqué une très vive émotion au Royaume-Uni, même si aucune date n'a encore été donné pour la manifestation. Une pétition lancée vendredi dernier sur le site Internet Facebook par une mère de famille anglaise a déjà recueilli plus de 350.000 signatures pour s'opposer à la venue des manifestants islamistes dans ce tranquille village qui est devenu le symbole du respect porté par la population aux soldats morts pour leur patrie. Le premier ministre, Gordon Brown, et le chef des conservateurs, David Cameron, ont dénoncé en des termes très sévères cette récupération d'un lieu cher aux familles des victimes. Le ministre de l'Intérieur, Alan Johnson, a expliqué qu'il envisageait d'interdire la manifestation si les autorités locales du Wiltshire lui en faisaient la demande. Réaction de dégoût >>> Cyrille Vanlerberghe, envoyé spécial du Figaro à Wootton Bassett | Mercredi 06 Janvier 2010
Les groupes anti-islamistes gagnent du terrain
LE FIGARO: Pour ces associations, le but est d'empêcher l'islam radical de devenir «une force politique en Europe» et de «récupérer» leurs centres-villes.
Stop à l'islamisation de l'Europe, Ligue de défense anglaise et galloise, Casuals United : ces organisations, aux noms souvent évocateurs, sont particulièrement actives. Créée en mars dernier, la Ligue de défense anglaise (EDL) est déjà à l'origine d'une dizaine de manifestations à Birmingham, Londres, Manchester ou Leeds contre «l'extrémisme et le terrorisme islamique». «Nous ne sommes pas des nazis ou des racistes, explique Tommy, un porte-parole du mouvement. Plusieurs centres-villes sont infestés d'extrémistes. Certaines femmes ne veulent plus aller faire leurs courses par peur de cette vingtaine d'hommes habillés en robes islamiques qui crient des slogans antibritanniques et qui appellent au djihad et à la haine raciale. Ce sont nos centres-villes et nous voulons les récupérer.» Même son de cloche du côté du groupe Stop à l'islamisation de l'Europe (SIOE), crée au Danemark en 2007 et qui est apparu cette année en Grande-Bretagne. «Notre but est d'empêcher l'islam radical de devenir une force politique en Europe», peut-on lire sur leur site Internet.
Pourtant, plusieurs organisations de lutte contre le racisme dénoncent les liens de ces groupuscules avec les partis d'extrême droite et le hooliganisme. «EDL et les autres sont des groupes racistes, un club d'alcooliques, qui n'a qu'un but : attaquer les Asiatiques», explique Unis contre le racisme. >>> Valentine Piedelièvre, à Londres | Mercredi 06 Janvier 2010
Verfolgt wegen ihrer Religion: 70.000 Christen in nordkoreanischen Arbeitslagern
WELT ONLINE: Weltweit werden Christen wegen ihres Glaubens unterdrückt, eingesperrt, angegriffen und gezielt ermordet. In Nordkorea ist die Verfolgung am schärfsten, gefolgt vom Iran, Saudi-Arabien und Somalia. Aber auch die Regierung des Inselparadieses Malediven geht besonders hart gegen die "Ungläubigen" vor.
In keinem Land der Welt werden Christen nach Angaben des internationalen Missions- und Hilfswerkes Open Doors so unerbittlich unterdrückt und verfolgt wie im kommunistischen Nordkorea. Auch der Iran, Saudi-Arabien, Afghanistan und der Jemen stehen auf dem neuen „Weltverfolgungsindex“ der Kirchenorganisation weit oben. Insgesamt seien rund 100 Millionen Christen in 50 Ländern unterschiedlich schwerer Verfolgung aufgrund ihres Glaubens ausgesetzt.
In acht der zehn Länder mit der schlimmsten Christenverfolgung sei der Islam die vorherrschende Religion, erklärte das 1955 in den Niederlanden gegründete überkonfessionelle Hilfswerk, das auch in Deutschland aktiv ist. Nordkorea führt die Liste der Christenverfolger bereits zum achten Mal an. Das dortige Regime gehe gegen Mitglieder von Untergrundgemeinden, denen nach Schätzungen etwa 200.000 Menschen angehören, „mit Verhaftungen, Arbeitslagerstrafen für die gesamte Familie eines entdeckten Christen oder Hinrichtungen vor“. 70.000 nordkoreanische Christen seien derzeit in Arbeitslagern gefangen. >>> dpa/jay | Mittwoch, 06. Januar 2010
REUTERS: WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama told his security chiefs on Tuesday that the botched Christmas Day plane bombing was the result of a screw up by U.S. intelligence and that the country had barely dodged disaster, according to a quotation released by the White House.
"This was a screw up that could have been disastrous," the president said during a meeting in the White House situation room, according to the White House media office. "We dodged a bullet but just barely. It was averted by brave individuals not because the system worked and that is not acceptable. While there will be a tendency for finger pointing, I will not tolerate it." [Source: Reuters] Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, editing by Bill Trott | Tuesday, January05, 2010
Pressure on Barack Obama to Reveal What Britain Said about Detroit Bomber
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama is under pressure to disclose what information MI5 passed to the American authorities about the Detroit bomber after Downing Street disclosed that a file had been "shared" with the CIA in 2008.
After initially denying that they had received British intelligence, senior American sources confirmed last night that they were "reviewing" what British information had been received on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
The admission is embarrassing for the White House and threatens to provoke a rift with Gordon Brown. The conflicting briefing over the shared intelligence also suggests that the transatlantic relationship may have weakened in recent months.
Confirmation that Abdulmutallab's name was passed to the US in 2008 would be a major blow to Mr Obama, although it could also open up accusations that George W Bush's administration failed to collate intelligence properly.
The Prime Minister's spokesman disclosed on Monday that MI5 information had been shared with the Americans more than a year ago. Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, confirmed this in the House of Commons yesterday. The information is understood to have detailed Abdulmutallab's contacts with radical preachers but did not give warning that he might be a terrorist threat.
White House sources are thought to be furious over the British intervention, with Mr Obama already under pressure over intelligence failures concerning the thwarted attempt to blow up the US airliner. >>> Robert Winnett, Toby Harnden and Duncan Gardham | Tuesday, Januar 05, 2010
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Passenger Profiling 'Could Be Used in Britain', Says Alan Johnson
THE TELEGRAPH: Controversial passenger profiling techniques could be used in response to the attempted Detroit plane bombing, the Home Secretary has announced.
Home Secretary: Body scanners in three weeks
Alan Johnson said he was looking at whether ''additional targeted profiling'' was needed to beef up airport security.
Passengers could be searched according to their race, ethnic background, age and gender, a decision that is likely to face opposition from civil rights groups.
Announcing a series of new security measures, Mr Johnson warned passengers would face further delays as more were searched before they board planes.
As well as body scanners, which will be brought in at Heathrow by the end of this month, passengers will see more sniffer dogs.
By the end of the year all British airports will be required to have trace equipment in place to detect explosives in the air.
In a House of Commons statement, Mr Johnson accepted no one technology would be ''100% effective''.
He acknowledged there were civil liberties concerns about profiling, but said ministers also had an ''overriding obligation'' to protect lives.
''We are examining carefully whether additional targeted passenger profiling might help to enhance airport security,'' Mr Johnson said. >>> | Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Burj Dubai: The New Pinnacle of Vanity
THE TELEGRAPH: For all the ambition of its construction, Dubai's new Khalifa Tower is a frightening, purposeless monument to the subprime era, says Stephen Bayley.
World’s new tallest building opens in Dubai
"Less is only more where more is no good." I wonder how many guests squinting into the Gulf's blue skies before the sublime, coruscating, vitreous surfaces of the blasphemously vertiginous Burj Dubai at yesterday's opening ceremony knew Frank Lloyd Wright's sardonic remark.
Wright was the Welsh-American architect – part bardic mystic, part technophile, complete megalomaniac – who proposed in 1956 the Illinois Sky City in Chicago. This was an outrageous, mile-high building: 528 floors, each with a height of 10 feet.
Wright's business was to shock and awe all mankind while doing what he could to épater la bourgeoisie at the same time. In 1956, there was neither the technological, nor indeed the financial, possibility of Wright's Sky City being built. It was a fantasy designed to impress. So, too, is Burj Dubai – or Burj Khalifa, the Khalifa Tower, as we must now call it, after it was renamed yesterday in honour of the president of the United Arab Emirates.
And Wright was its inspiration. Burj Khalifa is the work of the grand old Chicago architectural firm of Skidmore Owings and Merrill, world leaders in design of supertall buildings. SOM, as it is known, has drunk very deeply of Wright's intoxicating brew of techno-mysticism and physical daring. But, touchingly and significantly, Fazlur Khan, SOM's engineering genius whose experiments ultimately made Burj Khalifa possible, was born not in a big Western city but in Bhandarikandi, Shibchur Upazila near Dhaka.
Khan invented a new way of building tall. In the Middle Ages, masonry structures could not reach higher than the great European cathedrals: both the practicalities of hauling stone skywards with only wooden winding gear and wooden scaffolding, plus the structural requirement for unfeasibly thick walls to create stability, limited the masons' reach for Heaven.
Then, in the late 19th century, steel-framed buildings were developed in Chicago: giving the load-bearing job to structural metal made masonry redundant. Walls were there only to keep out the weather and the conventional skyscraper was born. >>> Stephen Bayley | Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Copé veut interdire le voile intégral sur la voie publique
Iran 'Bars Co-operation with Foreign Groups'
BBC: Iran has banned its citizens from co-operating with foreign organisations it says are trying to destabilise the government, state media has reported.
The 60 blacklisted groups include human rights groups, Iranian opposition websites and media groups such as the BBC and US broadcasters.
Iran's deputy intelligence minister told Press TV the groups were involved in a "soft war" against the state.
The official said the groups had helped incite post-election unrest.
The BBC, Voice of America, the US National Defense University, the Soros Foundation, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the East European Democratic Centre (EEDC) were among the organisations named.
Tehran has issues similar bans in the past and the terms of the ban itself remain unclear.
But Press TV quoted the official as saying that co-operating with the groups, signing contracts with them or receiving assistance from them was illegal.
He said it was also illegal for foreign parties to receive funding from foreign countries and warned citizens to avoid "any unusual relations" with foreign embassies and nationals. >>> | Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Henryk M. Broder – After Attack on Danish Cartoonist: The West Is Choked by Fear
A Somalian man broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard on Friday armed with an ax and a knife. He is accused of the attempted murder of the Danish cartoonist. Photograph: Spiegel Online International
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL – Editorial: The attack on illustrator Kurt Westergaard wasn't the first attempt to carry out a deadly fatwa. When Muslims tried to murder Salman Rushdie 20 years ago, the protests among intellectuals were loud. Today, though, Western writers and thinkers would rather take cover than defend basic rights.
In 1988, Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses" was published in its English-language original edition. Its publication led the Iranian state and its revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, to issue a "fatwa" against Rushdie and offer a hefty bounty for his murder. This triggered several attacks on the novel's translators and publishers, including the murder of Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi. Millions of Muslims around the world who had never read a single line of the book, and who had never even heard the name Salman Rushdie before, wanted to see the death sentence against the author carried out -- and the sooner the better, so that the stained honor of the prophet could be washed clean again with Rushdie's blood.
In that atmosphere, no German publisher had the courage to publish Rushdie's book. This led a handful of famous German authors, led by Günter Grass, to take the initiative to ensure that Rushdie's novel could appear in Germany by founding a publishing house exclusively for that purpose. It was called Artikel 19, named after the paragraph in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights that guarantees the freedom of opinion. Dozens of publishing houses, organizations, journalists, politicians and other prominent members of German society were involved in the joint venture, which was the broadest coalition that had ever been formed in postwar German history.
Sympathy for the Hurt Feelings of Muslims
Seventeen years later, after the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published a dozen Muhammad cartoons on a single page, there were similar reactions in the Islamic world to those that had followed the publication of "The Satanic Verses." Millions of Muslims from London to Jakarta who had never seen the caricatures or even heard the name of the newspaper, took to the streets in protests against an insult to the prophet and demanded the appropriate punishment for the offenders: death. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden even went so far as to demand the cartoonists' extradition so that they could be condemned by an Islamic court.
This time, however, in contrast to the Rushdie case, hardly anyone has showed any solidarity with the threatened Danish cartoonists -- to the contrary. Grass, who had initiated the Artikel 19 campaign, expressed his understanding for the hurt feelings of the Muslims and the violent reactions that resulted. Grass described them as a "fundamentalist response to a fundamentalist act," in the process drawing a moral equivalence between the 12 cartoons and the death threats against the cartoonists. Grass also stated that: "We have lost the right to seek protection under the umbrella of freedom of expression." >>> Henryk M. Broder | Monday, January 04, 2010
Dark Age Alert! Malawi Gay Wedding Couple Denied Bail for 'Own Protection'
THE GUARDIAN: Two men arrested after symbolic ceremony last month could face up to 14 years in jail
A court in Malawi today denied bail to two men arrested after becoming the first gay couple to marry in the conservative African country.
Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwausiwa told a packed court that he could not grant the couple bail, saying the ruling was for their own protection. "The public out there is angry with them," Usiwausiwa said.
Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza committed to marriage in a symbolic ceremony in southern Malawi last month, attracting hundreds of onlookers. They were arrested at the home they share and charged with unnatural practices between males and gross public indecency.
Government prosecutors had asked the court to detain the couple for a longer period to allow for more investigations.
Police said the two men had been taken for medical tests to prove whether they had sexual intercourse. The men's lawyer has pledged to resist any such tests. "Unless they give their consent to the medical examination, we will protest," Noel Supedi said.
The case has generated huge interest in Malawi. Suzanne Worrica, a British spectator in court, said: "The crowd atmosphere was again hostile, taunting Tiwonge and Steven, although some gay rights campaigners were present, who gave them money." >>> (with video) David Smith, Africa correspondent | Monday, January 04, 2010
Quintessential Englishmen: Yesterday, Today
Yesterday: Elegant Englishmen in tweeds. Photo: Google Images
Today: An English Muslim in the style of the prophet Muhammad, with long, bushy beard and clipped moustache. No trace of elegance here! Photo: Mail Online
Court Hears Muslims Calling British Soldiers ‘Rapists’, 'Cowards’ and ‘Scum’
MAIL ONLINE: Shocking films of a group of Muslim protestors shouting 'rapists', 'scum' and 'burn in hell' at soldiers on a homecoming parade were played to a court today.
The mob of Muslim anti-war protesters screamed hostile chants including 'baby killers and murderers all of you' and 'British army murderers' at 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment - which had lost 12 soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
Holding signs made from cardboard boxes denouncing soldiers as 'Butchers of Basra' and 'war criminals', the group of men jeered 'murderers' as they marched past.
What should have been a joyful homecoming spilled over into violence as angry members of the public there to give the soldiers a heroes' welcome shouted insults back at the protestors, Luton Magistrates Court heard. >>> Lucy Ballinger and Mark Duell | Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Tories Downgrade Their Promises on Tax Breaks for Married Couples
TIMES ONLINE: The Tories have downgraded their promise of tax breaks to married couples, saying that due to the dire state of the public finances it will only be possible to offer a limited scheme.
Previously the policy had been a headline pledge for the Tories, with David Cameron expressing strong support for the idea as something that the party "will definitely do".
The scheme that the Tories have favoured up till now was to allow spouses to transfer their income tax personal allowances to one another, likely to be of particular benefit to higher income couples where one partner does not work.
But with Treasury figures suggesting that such a scheme would cost £4.9 billion to implement, the shadow chief secretary to the treasury has said that the Conservatives were likely to opt initially for a more limited scheme. >>> Jenny Booth | Tuesday, January 05, 2010
General Wojciech Jaruzelski. Photo: Google Images
Punish Those Communist Bastards!
THE TELEGRAPH: Poland's last communist leader and thousands of former secret service agents have had their pensions cut as part of a campaign to punish those who imposed the authoritarian regime upon the country.
From the start of the year, General Wojciech Jaruzelski will see his pension slashed following widespread anger in Poland that he and others involved in the suppression of dissidents and the democratic movement enjoyed lavish pensions.
The general, along with colleagues from the National Salvation Council, the body that crushed the Solidarity movement in 1981 through the imposition of martial law, have until now enjoyed pensions worth £1,833 a month.
But from January they will receive only £900, although some have said this, too, is excessive, given that a retired doctor can take home as little as £434 a month. Poland punishes former communist leaders by cutting pensions >>> Matthew Day in Warsaw | Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Freed Guantánamo Inmates Are Heading for Yemen to Join al-Qaeda Fight
Said Ali al-Shihri, Ibrahim Suleiman al Rubaish (ID not confirmed); Abdullah Saleh Ali al Ajmi; and Abdullah Mahsud. Photograph: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: At least a dozen former Guantánamo Bay inmates have rejoined al-Qaeda to fight in Yemen, The Times has learnt, amid growing concern over the ability of the country’s Government to accept almost 100 more former inmates from the detention centre.
The Obama Administration promised to close the Guantánamo facility by January 22, a deadline that it will be unable to meet. The 91 Yemeni prisoners in Guantánamo make up the largest national contingent among the 198 being held.
Six prisoners were returned to Yemen last month. After the Christmas Day bomb plot in Detroit, US officials are increasingly concerned that the country is becoming a hot-bed of terrorism. Eleven of the former inmates known to have rejoined al-Qaeda in Yemen were born in Saudi Arabia. The organisation merged its Saudi and Yemeni offshoots last year.
The country’s mountainous terrain, poverty and lawless tribal society make it, in the opinion of many analysts, a close match for Afghanistan as a new terrorist haven. >>> Tom Coghlan | Tuesday, January 05, 2010
